Petra
Ma\u0027an Governorate, Jordan
The Nabataean capital carved into southern Jordan's sandstone, a caravan city of tombs, temples, and waterworks that became one of the world's most visited archaeological parks and remains a symbol of Jordan.
Petra's inhabitants called it Raqmu. The Nabataeans, an Arab people, settled the area by the fourth century BCE and made it their capital by the second, growing wealthy on the incense and spice routes that crossed their territory. Their engineering, not their rock-cutting, may be the more remarkable achievement: dams, cisterns, and ceramic pipelines collected flash floods and rain in one of the driest landscapes in the region. Al-Khazneh, the Treasury facade tourists meet at the end of the Siq, was likely built as the mausoleum of Nabataean king Aretas IV in the first century CE, when the city's population peaked around 20,000. Rome annexed the kingdom in 106 CE, an earthquake in 363 damaged the city, and by the early Islamic era it was nearly empty except for local Bedouin. The Swiss traveler Johann Ludwig Burckhardt reached it in 1812, the first western visitor in centuries, and UNESCO has since called Petra one of the most precious cultural properties of man's cultural heritage.
Today Petra is Jordan's most-visited attraction, drawing close to a million visitors a year in strong years, and it carries real cultural weight beyond tourism: it appears on Jordanian banknotes and is a point of national identity. The Bdoul and Amarin Bedouin families lived in the cave tombs within living memory, and their history is part of the site's story rather than a footnote. Visitors should walk the Siq slowly; the Treasury reveal is famous, but the Street of Facades, the theater, the Royal Tombs, and the Monastery high on the ridge reward more time.
Visiting
The Petra Development and Tourism Region Authority sets the fees: one-day ticket 50 JOD, two-day 55 JOD, three-day 60 JOD; visitors not staying overnight in Jordan pay 90 JOD. Children under 12 free. Jordan Pass holders are covered but must present the pass at the ticket office. Multi-day tickets must be used on consecutive days; a 5 JOD extension for 50/30 JOD tickets is available only at the Visitor Center. Petra by Night requires a separate ticket on top of valid daytime admission. Hours are published on the official site and shift seasonally; confirm the current hours page before travel.
Photo: [CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Al_Khazneh_Petra_edit_2.jpg)
Associated traditions & practices
Visitor stories